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A IJTHOR: 


BRITTON,  L.  A. 


TITLE: 


IS  VIVISECTION  RIGHT 
AND  IS  IT  WORTH  THE, 


PLACE: 


BOSTON 


DA  TE: 


[1 908] 


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Is  vivisection  right  and  is  it  worth  the  cost?  ; 
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IS  VIVISECTION  RIGHT,  AND  IS  IT 
WORTH  THE  COST  ? 

BY 

Iv.    A.    BRITTON, 

SPRINGFIELD,    VERMONT. 


THREE   HUNDRED   DOLLAR  PRIZE   ESSAY 
AGAINST  VIVISECTION. 


(PRIZE  WAS  OFFERED   BY  GEORGE  T.  ANGELL.) 


N.  E.  Anti- Vivisection  Society 

TREMONT  TEMPLE. 
BOSTON,    -      -      -     MASS. 


1 9  o  y 


i, 


THREE  HUNDRED  DOLLAR  PRIZE  ESSAY 
AGAINST  VIVISECTION. 


f. 


IS  VIVISECTION  RIGHT,  AND  IS  IT 
WORTH  THE  COST? 


Wrillen  by  L.  A.  BRITTON.  Sprinrfdd,  Vwrnont. 


IS  VIVISECTION  RIGHT,  AND  IS  IT   WORTH 

THE  COST? 


»  •  ■^ 


The  object  of  this  article  is  not  to  bandy  words  with  professional 
and  learned  men,  but  to  state  as  simply  as  possible  in  the  speech  of 
the  people  some  thoroughly  authenticated  facts  in  regard  to  vivisec- 
tion, which  even  the  scornfully  derided  "  uninformed  "  layman  may 
understand. 

From  days  of  old,  humanity  has  been  continually  running  about 
seeking  after  some  i^w  thing.  A  few  years  ago  certain  honored 
experts  commenced  to  wield  the  knife  with  a  boldness  hitherto  un- 
known. Their  pace  was  quickly  taken  by  surgeons  of  less  degree, 
and  soon  every  country  physician  was  operating  with  fatal  results 
upon  many  cases  not  operable  in  the  light  of  a  better  knowledge 
and  training. 

The  powerful  influence  of  much  talking  and  thinking  along  a 
given  line  of  investigation  was  evinced  in  the  facility  with  which 
certain  maladies  became  a  fad  in  the  profession.  For  a  time  tonsils 
were  thought  superfluous  and  were  consequently  removed.     Then 

(5) 


it  was  the  uvula  that  the  Lord  had  blundered  in  creating.  My  na- 
tive town  had  for  several  years  a  startlingly  large  obsession  of 
tumors.  Now  the  number  of  inhabitants  possessing  an  appendix 
must  be  exceedingly  small. 

Vivisection  has  struggled  for  and  obtained  place  in  every  State  of 
the  Union,  sometimes  even  in  high  and  grammar  schools  where  a 
teacher  has  been  known  to  boast  that  she  could  teach  more  physi- 
ology in  a  few  minutes  with  a  cat  and  a  jackknife  than  in  any 
other  way. 

We  are  told  that  the  cause  of  science  is  at  stake.  Young  men 
beginning  the  study  of  medicine  are  shamed  out  of  all  naturally  hu- 
mane feeling  toward  the  pitiable  objects  of  vivisection  by  stern 
professors  who  quote  to  them  the  words  of  M.  de  Cyon :  "  The  true 
vivisector  must  approach  a  difficult  vivisection  with  the  same  joyful 
excitement,  and  the  same  delight,  wherewith  a  surgeon  undertakes 
a  difficult  operation,  from  which  he  expects  extraordinary  conse- 
quences. He  who  shrinks  from  cutting  into  a  living  animal,  he  who 
approaches  a  vivisection  as  a  disagreeable  necessity,  may  very  likely 
be  able  to  repeat  one  or  two  vivisections,  but  will  never  become  an 
artist  in  vivisection.  He  who  cannot  follow  some  fine  nerve-thread, 
scarcely  visible  to  the  naked  eye,  into  the  depths,  if  possible  some- 
times tracing  it  to  a  new  branching,  with  joyful  alertness  for  hours 
at  a  time  ;  he  who  feels  no  enjoyment  when  at  last  parted  from  its 
surroundings  and  isolated,  he  can  subject  that  nerve  to  electrical 
stimulation ;  ....  to  such  a  one  there  is  wanting  what  is  most 
necessary  for  a  successful  vivisector." 

And  is  this  exquisite  enjoyment  produced  by  operating  upon  a  dead 
or  even  senseless  animal  ?  By  no  means.  In  the  face  of  all  protes- 
tations to  the  contrary  the  weight  of  the  evidence  goes  to  prove  that 

(6) 


the  anaesthetic  is  seldom  used,  that  curare  which  paralyzes  motion 
while  it  increases  sensibility  is  the  only  effective  means  of  quieting 
the  struggles  of  suffering  victims  without  ending  their  torment  by 
death.  And  worse  than  all  this,  many  dogs,  after  being  practically 
used  up  by  experiments,  are  turned  loose  on  the  street,  still  groan- 
ing, bleeding,  and  mangled. 

Before  we  allow  our  sympathies  to  become  too  much  aroused,  let 
us  ask  what  the  advancement  of  science  really  owes  to  the  suffer- 
ings of  dumb  animals. 

Vivisectionists  openly  claim  that  their  practices  are  justified  by 
their  sincere  purpose  to  make  new  discoveries  in  the  science  of 
medicine,  to  acquire  dexterity  in  surgery,  and  by  the  necessity  for 
demonstration  of  facts  before  classes. 

Their  first  point  is  well  taken  if  the  end  attained  has  justified  the 
means.  Let  us  turn  to  the  medical  profession  for  light  on  this  sub- 
ject. We  find  that  at  the -present  time  many  distinguished  surgeons 
who  have  practiced  vivisection  in  past  years  declare  its  actual  definite 
results  useless. 

Dr.  Carpenter,  though  a  vivisectionist,  says  that  the  insulation  of 
any  one  organ  destroys  the  conditions  under  which  its  functions  can 
be  normally  performed.  Observations  of  such  phenomena,  not  of 
nature,  but  of  the  ruthless  work  of  operators  under  the  protection  of 
medical  science,  have  led  to  experiments  upon  human  beings  which 
have  been  fatal.  The  difference  in  species  makes  deduced  conclu- 
sions in  the  one  case  a  hidden  trap  for  fatal  results  in  the  human 
being. 

Sir  Charles  Bell  makes  this  statement :  "  The  opening  of  animals 
has  done  more  to  perpetuate  error  than  to  confirm  the  just  views 
taken  from  the  study  of  anatomy." 

(7) 


The  late  Sir  Lawson  Tait,  Pellow  of  the  Royal  College  of  Sur- 
geons, who  is  so  frequently  quoted  as  high  authority  in  surgery, 
declared  that  "Experiments  on  animals  did  and  could  teach  nothing; 
for  operations  have  been  performed  on  thousands  of  animals  every 
year  for  centuries,  and  nothing  whatever  has  been  learned  from  this 
wholesale  vivisection." 

The  late  Prof.  Henry  J.  Bigelow  of  Harvard  spoke  of  cold- 
blooded cruelties  practiced  more  and  more  in  the  name  of  science. 
He  also  said,  "  There  is  little  in  the  literature  of  what  is  called  the 

horrors  of  vivisection  which  is  not  well  grounded  on  truth 

Vivisection  is  not  an  innocent  study Vivisection  will  always 

be  the  better  for  vigilant  supervision,  for  whatever  outside  pressure 
can  be  brought  to  bear  against  it.  Such  pressure  will  never  be  too 
great,  nor  will  it  retard  progress  a  hair's  breadth  in  the  hands  of  that 
very  limited  class  w^ho  are  likely  materially  to  advance  knowledge 

by  its  practice A  torture  of  helpless  animals  —  more  terrible, 

by  reason  of  its  refinement  and  the  effort  to  prolong  it,  than  burn- 
ing at  the  stake,  which  is  brief,  —  is  now  being  carried  on  in  all  civil- 
ized nations,  not  in  the  name  of  religion,  but  of  science The 

law  should  interfere.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  in  this  relation 
there  exists  a  case  of  cruelty  to  animals  far  transcending  in  its  refine- 
ment and  in  its  horrors  anything  that  has  been  known  in  the  history 
of  nations.  There  will  come  a  time  when  the  world  will  look  back 
to  modern  vivisection  in  the  name  of  science  as  they  now  do  to 
burning  at  the  stake  in  the  name  of  religion." 

This  testimony  comes  from  Sir  Benjamin  Ward  Richardson, 
M.  D.,  F.  R.  S. :  "  Pain,  when  it  is  excited  and  sustained  in  any 
animal,  obscures  and  falsifies  for  the  time  all  the  other  vital  phe- 
nomena which  admit  of  investigation In  plain  words,  it  is 

(8) 


\t 


^ 


4.  y 


X,   r 


utterly  impossible  to  observe  natural  function  under  the  shadow  of 
pain  either  in  man  or  animal,  for  he  who  tries  to  observe  under  such 
circumstances  must  make  so  many  allowances  for  the  circumstances 
under  which  he  is  observing  it,  he  finds  it  extremely  difficult,  if  even 
it  be  possible,  to  be  precise  in  his  conclusions." 

George  Wilson,  M.  D.,  LL.D.,  said  before  a  medical  association  : 
"  After  all  these  long  years  of  flickering  hope,  I  am  prepared  to  con- 
tend that  the  indiscriminate  maiming  and  slaughter  of  animal  life 
w^ith  which  these  bacteriological  methods  of  research  and  experi- 
mentation have  been  inseparably  associated,  cannot  be  proved  to 
have  saved  one  single  human  life  or  lessened  in  any  appreciable 
degree  the  load  of  human  suffering." 

Sir  Thomas  Watson,  one  of  the  greatest  physicians  that  ever 
lived,  said  not  long  before  he  died,  that  young  men  had  to  unlearn 
at  the  bedside  what  they  had  learned  in  the  laboratory. 

The  late  Prof.  James  E.  Garretson,  M.  D.,  Senior  Professor  of 
Surgery,  Medico-Chirurgical  College,  Philadelphia,  said :  "  I  am 
without  words  to  express  my  horror  of  vivisection,  though  I  have 
been  a  teacher  of  anatomy  and  surgery  for  thirty  years.  It  serves 
no  purpose  that  is  not  better  served  after  other  manners." 

Notice  that  this  condemnation  comes  from  the  medical  profession, 
not  from  "  uninformed  "  laymen.  Over  three  hundred  Massachu- 
setts physicians  have  given  their  names  as  openly  opposed  to  vivi- 
section, and  a  much  larger  number  are  in  favor  of  restriction,  while 
a  long  list  of  English,  French,  German,  and  American  doctors,  high 
in  their  profession,  declare  against  the  value  of  any  benefit  coming 
to  the  human  race  by  the  vivisection  of  animals. 

We  have  the  most  conclusive  proof  of  all  in  the  fact  that  vivisec- 
tionists  themselves  have  turned  from  their  assertion  that  they  sacri- 

(9) 


.1 


fice  animals  in  order  tiot  to  vivisect  human  beings,  and  now  claim 
that  as  animal  vivisection  is  unsatisfactory  they  must  have  the 
capital  criminal  class  of  human  subjects  to  work  upon. 

What  rights  remain  to  the  vivisectible  public  if  the  "  untrammel- 
led science  "  of  such  men  prevails  ? 

In  England  a  petition,  nine  miles  in  length,  weighing  one-quarter 
of  a  ton,  and  signed  by  over  four  hundred  thousand  persons,  asking 
for  further  legislation  on  this  subject,  has  recently  been  presented  to 
the  House  of  Commons. 

Surely  these  facts  would  indicate  that  the  so-called  discoveries  of 
vivisectionists  have  little  or  no  value  in  the  eyes  of  many  intelligent 
men  of  to-day. 

Harvey  is  said  by  vivisectionists  to  have  discovered  the  true  cir- 
culation of  the  blood  by  vivisection,  but  by  his  own  assertion  we  are 
informed  that  he  was  first  led  to  the  discovery  by  anatomical  obser- 
vation. The  direct  inspection  claimed  from  numerous  experiments 
could  not  result  in  the  verification  of  the  theory.  The  same  false 
claim  is  made  for  Sir  Charles  Bell's  discovery  of  the  functions  of 
the  anterior  and  posterior  nerves,  but  he  himself  denies  the  state, 
ment. 

Dr.  Charles  Bell  Taylor,  of  London,  thus  disposes  of  another 
claim  of  vivisectionists  :  "  Galvani's  discovery  of  electricity  was  due 
to  experiments  on  dead  frogs,  not  on  living  animals.  Vivisection 
had  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it."  And  again  :  "  The  anesthetic 
properties  of  ether  and  chloroform  were  discovered  by  experiments 
upon  human  patients,  not  by  vivisection  of  animals." 

Liebig  was,  I  believe,  the  discoverer  of  chloroform,  and  Dr.  Simp- 
son first  experimented  upon  himself  and  his  friends,  Drs.  Keith  and 
Duncan,  who  all  became  insensible  under  the  test. 

(10) 


Now  the  study  of  bacteria  has  become  a  profession  in  itself.  Let 
us  hope  that  this  scientific  '•  fad  "  has  reached  its  limit  and  that  en- 
thusiastic students  are  becoming  more  and  more  ready  to  study 
health,  not  disease  ;  to  eliminate  germs,  not  breed  new  species,  and 
above  all  to  cease  this  senseless  creation  of  suffering  to  no  purpose 
unless  perhaps  to  furnish  a  new^  ofiice  dependent   upon   our  city 

treasuries. 

Let  us  investigate  briefly  a  few  of  the  diseases  to  which  bacteriol- 
ogists have  given  the  most  attention.  The  dangers  of  tuberculosis, 
the  white  plague,  are  known  more  or  less  scientifically  to  the  major- 
ity of  people  to-day.  A  few  years  ago  great  interest  was  excited  by 
Dr.  Koch's  so-called  consumption  cure,  and  although  he  himself 
declared  that  the  use  of  the  lymph  was  dangerous,  much  faith  was 
placed  in  this  discovery,  and  it  was  loudly  proclaimed  as  the  chief 
triumph  of  vivisection.  In  the  beginning  of  the  twentieth  century 
no  physician  is  so  hopelessly  behind  the  times  as  to  advocate  the 
inoculation  cure  for  a  disease  which  is  now  more  perfectly  under- 
stood and  more  often  overcome  than  was  deemed  possible  in  the 
day  of  Dr.  Koch's  lymph  agitation.  What  a  siege  of  pitiful  suffer- 
ing caused  by  an  incalculable  amount  of  useless  experimentation 
has  intervened  betw^een  that  period  and  the  present  advanced  views 
of  physicians  !  What  senseless  fear  has  been  sown  broadcast  in  the 
minds  of  the  ignorant  in  the  endeavor  to  educate  the  masses  to 
the  germ  theory  1  A  London  physician  states  that  probably  more 
children  and  people  generally  die  from  not  drinking  enough  milk 
than  from  drinking  impure  milk,  bacteriologists  and  veterinary 
doctors  to  the' contrary. 

Statistics  show  that  tuberculosis  is  decreasing  in  the  city  of  New" 
York  •  controlled  by  what .?     Not  by  information  gained  by  vivisec- 

(») 


tion,  but  by  municipal  legislation.     The  death  rate  from  this  disease 
has  fallen  from  29.1  per  10,000  in  1892,  to  22.8  per  10,000  in  1902. 
This  rapid  decrease  in  mortality  from  "  the  white  plague  "  in  New 
York  is  ascribed  to  a  system  of  notification  in  operation  since  1893, 
to  the  better  mode  of  life  of  the  people,  and  to  the  application  of 
modern  sanitary  methods  of  prevention.     Dr.  Collins  II.  Johnston, 
in  a  paper  before  the  State  Medical  Society  of  Michigan  proves  by 
statistics  that,  "The  eradication  of   pulmonary  tuberculosis  is  the 
most  important  sanitary  problem  of  to-day."     This  sanitary  problem 
will  be  solved  by  sunlight,  fresh  air,  and  good  food,  not  by  creating 
disease  in  animals.     The  Royal  Commission  of  London  is  now  col- 
lecting evidence  from  observations  of  human  subjects  in  order  that 
they  may  untangle  the  mass  of  error  created  by  conclusions  drawn 
from  experiments  tried  by  inoculation  of  animals. 

Valuable  statistics  have  been  obtained  from  microscopical  studies 
made  in  connection  with  autopsies  on  human  bodies  ;  and  this  way, 
namely,  post  mortem  examination,  is  the  right  and  only  method  of 
investigating  this  disease  for  reasons  connected  with  germ  growth 
which  are  known  to  the  profession,  and  which  make  studies  by 
vivisection  entirely  useless  in  drawing  conclusions  concerning  the 
tubercle  bacillus.  Thus  what  has  been  claimed  by  vivisectionists  as 
"  the  most  brilliant  vindication  of  vivisection,"  the  lymph  discovered 
by  Dr.  Koch,  means  little  or  nothing  to  medical  science  to-day. 

The  vivisectionist  formerly  claimed  that  experimentation  had  led 
up  to  the  anti-toxin  treatment  which  was  expected  to  lessen  the 
fatality  of  diphtheria.  This,  however,  has  not  been  the  case.  During 
three  years  in  which  anti-toxin  was  in  use  in  the  city  of  London  the 
death  rate  from  diphtheria  per  million  population  was  more  than 
three  times  as  high  as  that  which  prevailed  during  seventeen  years 

(  12) 


from  1865  to  1 88 1  inclusive.  These  are  figures  copied  from  govern- 
ment reports  which  are  made  in  England  with  an  accuracy  not  yet 
attempted  in  America.  More  people  died  last  year  from  diphtheria 
in  England  and  Wales  than  in  any  of  the  ten  years  before  anti-toxin 
was  introduced,  while  one-fourth  as  many  died  from  vaccination  as 
died  from  the  small-pox.  Yrom  the  mortality  returns  we  find  that 
the  period  from  1885  to  1894  shows  a  mortality  from  diphtheria  of 
200  per  million  persons  living,  while  the  period  from  1895  ^^  19^4 
shows  235  per  million.  Numbers  of  physicians  have  advocated  and 
faithfully  tried  the  serum  treatment,  but  now  have  become  opposed 
to  it  and  have  given  convincing  proofs  of  its  utter  uselessness  and 
injurious  effects.  Cleanliness  versus  the  antitoxin  fetish,  says  the 
latest  most  scientifically  cultured  medical  authority. 

Pasteurism  has  probably  caused  many  horrible  deaths,  and  it  is 
honestly  doubted  whether  Pasteur's  method  has  ever  done  more 
than  simply  fail  to  destroy  the  strong  recuperative  tendencies  of 
nature.  Hydrophobia  was  a  rare  disease  until  Pasteur  gave  it 
prominence  and  notoriety,  and  contributed  cases  for  study.  Dr. 
Charies  Bell  Taylor  said  in  an  address  before  a  society  of  physicians, 
that  more  than  2,200  persons  have  perished  from  being  inoculated 
with  rabid  matter.  Professor  Tait  spoke  in  the  strongest  terms 
against  Pasteur's  remedy  for  hydrophobia  and  Koch's  remedy  for 
consumption.  In  this  connection  he  said  in  part :  "  I  urge  against 
vivisection  the  strong  argument  that  it  has  proved  useless  and  mis- 
leading ;  that  in  the  interest  of  true  science  its  employment  should 
be  stopped,  so  that  the  energy  and  skill  of  scientific  invesrigators 
should  be  directed  into  better  and  safer  channels." 

One  shudders  involuntarily  at  the  mere  thought  of  the  infernal 
tortures  to  which  dogs  and  rabbits  in  large  numbers  are  daily  sub- 

(13) 


jected  in  order  to  keep  up  a  supply  of  virus  which  again  creates 
more  suffering  in  human  beings  than  it  allays.  And  plain  hot  water 
has  saved  many  who  were  so  fortunately  poor  in  purse  that  they 
might  not  attempt  to  reach  Pasteur  or  his  disciples. 

Vivisectors  have  made  many  boasts  in  regard  to  the  carbolic 
ligature,  but  Professor  Tait  wrote,  «  If  the  carbolic  ligature  had 
never  been  tried  on  animals,  where  it  seems  to  answer  admirably,  it 
would  never  have  been  tried  on  human  patients,  where  it  failed 
miserably  and  has  cost  many  lives." 

Last  March  Dr.  Bashford  of  Edinburgh,  appointed  to  investigate 
the  subject  by  the  Imperial  Cancer  Research  Society,  after  sacrific- 
ing more  than  one  hundred  thousand  mice  and  other  animals,  re- 
ported what  all  people  of  common  sense  have  believed  and  accepted 
without  sindy,  that  cancer  formations  are  due  to  mal-nutrition  ;  that 
there  is  no  germ  and  consequently  no  opportunity  for  further  scien- 
tific recreation  in  hunting  after  a  serum.  Notice  that  while  London 
experimenters  after  careful  study  declare  that  no  conclusive  results 
appear,  the  boom  in  trypsin  as  a  cure  for  cancer  is  still  actively  sup- 
ported by  New  York  vivisectors.  Why.?  That  they  may  conrinue 
their  useless  investigarions  without  censure. 

Cholera  is  another  disease  under  investigation  by  vivisectionists., 
and  ten  prisoners  who  were  recently  inoculated  with  anti-cholera 
serum  at  Manila  by  the  government  physicians  died  from  the  treat- 
ment. 

Is  not  this  carrying  free  experimentation  a  little  too  far  even  for 
our  laws  } 

We  have  not  space  to  refute  in  detail  the  claims  of  those  distin 
guished  students  of  science  who  have  made  such  a  fruitless  search 
after  knowledge  which  has  never  come,  and  while  wairing  for  the 

(14) 


wisdom  which  lingers,  have  sacrificed  countless  animals  and  have 
caused  untold  suffering. 

We  see  that  the  claim  of  vivisectionists  that  contagion  has  been 
checked  and  epidemics  averted  by  these  investigations  is  false. 

Most  middle-aged  physicians  were  brought  up  in  the  profession  in 
the  belief  that  many  important  methods  of  prolonging  human  life 
had  been  learned  from  experiments  on  the  lower  animals,  but  at  the 
present  time  we  are  thankful  to  assert  that  a  large  and  increasing 
number  claim  that  vivisection  has  in  no  sense  aided  the  physician 
or  surgeon,  but  on  the  contrary  has  often  misled  him.  For  the  dif- 
ference in  structure  between  the  human  being  and  the  animal  makes 
the  vivisection  of  animals  worse  than  useless  as  a  preparation  for 
work  upon  the  human  body.  An  authority  of  undisputed  eminence 
said  :  "  But  for  the  fallacies  of  vivisection,  the  Healing  Art  would 
now  be  a  century  in  advance  of  its  present  position  to-day." 

If  the  question  were  the  settlement  once  for  all  of  a  mooted  point 
in  scientific  circles  little  outcry  would  be  made  (provided  that  the 
pet  sacrificed  were  not  yours  or  mine),  but  the  gradual  growth  of 
opinion  among  medical  men  seems  to  give  abundant  testimony  that 
little  or  no  exact  information  beneficial  to  the  human  race  has  come 
from  all  the  pitiless,  cruel  suffering  inflicted  so  unnecessarily  in  the 
past,  and  there  is  little  ground  for  belief  that  anything  worth  while 
will  come  from  such  experimenting  in  the  future.  And  these  ex- 
periments are  not  confined  to  the  truly  scientific  effort  to  establish 
some  new  principle  or  truth.  Animals  by  the  thousand  are  tortured 
and  sacrificed  daily  to  demonstrate  facts  which  every  child  knows 
absolutely. 

In  support  of  their  practices  the  physicians  and  surgeons  who 
have  honestly  conceived  it  part  of  their  professional  duty  to  calmly 

(15) 


if 


deceive  the  wife,  husband,  father,  mother,  or  child,  about  the  truth 
of  the  disease  which  threatens  their  loved  one,  now  boldly  deceive 
the  public  about  the  cruelty  of  the  hidden  proceedings  of  the  labora- 
tory, seeking  to  allay  the  troublesome  fears  of  an  excited  public  by 
a  play  upon  words  calculated  to  mislead  the  "  uninformed  "  and 
ignorant  layman. 

Let  us  investigate  the  so-called  painlessness  of  laboratory  experi- 
mentation. First,  we  will  ask  the  question.  Why  the  vigorous  con- 
tention by  vivisectionists  against  legislation  in  the  United  States  if 
no  pain  beyond  "  that  of  a  mere  pin-prick  is  inflicted,"  when  all  that 
has  been  demanded  is  the  elimination  of  suffering  ?  By  this  pin- 
prick many  animals  are  inoculated  with  disease,  to  linger  in  pitiful 
suffering  for  months  in  order  that  the  progress  of  the  disease  under 
investigation  may  be  minutely  studied. 

Allusion  is  made  scornfully  to  the  sacrifice  of  a  few  mice  and  pigs 
in  the  attempt  to  prolong  human  life.     As  a  matter  of  fact  vivisec- 
rionists  have  created  a  new  industry,  the  raising  of  animals  in  large 
numbers  for  use  in  the  laboratory.     Even  children  are   bribed   to 
take  cats  daily  to  one  of  our  leading  universiries,  while  several  hun- 
dred frogs,  doves,  rabbits,  and  dogs  are  disposed  of  in  a  few  months 
by  a  single  insritution.     The  new  Rockefeller  Institute  has  a  ninety- 
seven  acre  farm  in  New  Jersey  where  arrangements  will  be  made  for 
the  practicing  of  vivisection  on  an  enormous  scale.     The  purpose  in 
stocking  this  farm  with  animals  and   fowls  is   to  obtain  increased 
facilities  for  scientific  work,  and  to  reduce  the  expense  of  obtaining 
animals  from  dealers  and  small  boys  who  are  now  entirely  unable 
to  supply  the  demand  of  the  Institute  by  capturing  stray  cats  and 
dogs  including  without  doubt   many  a  loved  pet   from   a   happy 
home.  "^ 

(i6) 


4  4 


Another  thriving  business  is  the  manufacture  of  apparatus  for 
binding  and  holding  as  in  a  vise  the  bodies  of  animals  about  to  be 
operated  upon,  from  the  big  "  kynolith,"  or  dog-stone,  for  the  power- 
ful St.  Bernard,  to  the  tiny  special  tables  for  birds  and  frogs.  This 
brings  us  to  the  question  of  anaesthetics.  The  truth  in  regard  to 
their  pretended  use  has  been  made  known  by  men  at  the  very  pin- 
nacle of  the  profession.  Many  doctors  and  surgeons  acknowledge 
that  in  a  long  experience  of  laboratory  work  they  never  saw  anses- 
thestics  used  or  heard  them  hinted  at.  Dr.  Hoggan  says  that 
anaesthetics  have  '•  proved  the  greatest  curse  of  vivisectible  ani- 
mals," —  that  the  "  public  conscience  was  the  thing  anaestheticized, 
and  not  the  animals."  He  also  remarks  that  "  complete  and  con- 
scientious anaesthesia  is  seldom  even  attempted,  the  animal  getting 
at  most  a  slight  whiff  of  chloroform,  by  way  of  satisfying  the  con- 
science of  the  operator,  or  of  enabling  him  to  make  statements  of  a 
humane  character."  Dr.  Walker  gives  the  same  evidence  before 
the  Royal  Commission. 

The  use  of  curare,  "  the  hellish  wourali,"  as  Lord  Tennyson  called 
it,  which  paralyzes  motion  but  increases  the  animal's  susceptibility 
to  pain,  is  common.  The  sufferings  so  created  are  characterized  by 
even  M.  Claude  Bernard  as  *'  the  most  atrocious  the  mind  of  man 
can  conceive." 

The  uselessness  of  all  this  agony  is  shown  by  the  late  Sir  Ben- 
jamin Ward  Richardson  in  his  work  on  "  Biological  Experimenta- 
tion," in  which  he  says,  *'  I  am  certain  that  vital  experiments  to  have 
any  value  at  all,  must  be  conducted  without  any  trace  of  the  disturb- 
ing influence  of  suffering,  whether  man  or  lower  animal  be  the  sub- 
ject of  observation ;  nor  do  I  stand  alone  in  this  view.  I  have  heard 
it  expressed  by  Sir  Benjamin  Brodie,  Dr.  Baly,  Sir  John  Forbes,  Dr. 

(  17) 


W.  B.  Carpenter,  and  Dr.  John  Snow."     Sir  Charles  Bell  and  Alex- 
ander Walker  shared  this  view. 

Dr.  Richardson  strongly  opposed,  also,  experimental  demonstra- 
tions to  students.  Dr.  F.  R.  Marvin,  of  Albany,  says  that  the  man 
who  can  laugh  or  even  smile  at  the  agony  of  a  dog  will  in  time  come 
to  look  with  equal  indifference  upon  the  misery  of  the  men  and 
women  who  surround  him. 

Although  these  facts  might  be  multiplied  indefinitely,  it  would 
seem  to  be  decisively  proven  by  those  already  given  on  high  author- 
ity that  important  discoveries  have  not  been  made  by  vivisection, 
that  dexterity  can  not  be  acquired  for  work  upon  the  human  body 
by  practice  upon  animals,  and  that  on  moral  grounds  alone  such 
horrible  practices  should  never  be  permitted  for  the  sake  of  demon- 
stration of  facts  before  students. 

Is  this  picture  of  cruelty  overdrawn  ?  Let  us  investigate  a  few 
well  authenticated  instances.  Professor  Mantegazza  is  said  to  have 
devised  a  machine  which  he  appropriately  called  a  "  tormentor,"  in 
order  to  create  as  intense  pain  as  possible.  After  driving  numerous 
nails  through  the  soles  of  the  feet  he  applies  his  "  tormentor  "  by 
which  he  can  squeeze  an  ear  or  paw  between  the  teeth  of  pincers. 
He  boasts  that  he  can  tear  or  crush  it  in  all  sorts  of  ways.  Two 
little  creatures  are  subjected  for  two  hours  to  the  tormentor;  then 
"  larded  with  long,  thin  nails  in  their  limbs  ....  they  suffer,  and 
shut  up  in  the  machine  for  two  hours  more,  they  rush  against  each 
other  and,  not  having  the  strength  to  bite,  remain  interlaced,  with 
mouths  open,  screaming  and  groaning." 

Dr.  Leffingwell  quotes  an  instance  where  it  was  desired  to  test  the 
strength  of  maternal  affection  in  a  dog.  A  little  spaniel  was  selected 
and  tortured  by  every  method  known  to  science,  and  the  little  animal 

(i8) 


persisted  in  licking  her  young.  Then  after  living  through  seven  ex- 
periments and  having  her  breasts  cut  off  "she  still  unceasingly  licked 
the  living  and  the  dead  puppy,  and  treated  the  living  puppy  ^^ith  the 
same  tenderness  that  an  uninjured  dog  would  manifest,"  in  the 
words  of  the  investigator.  Professor  Goltz,  of  Strasburg.  What  a 
noble  discovery  !  And  pray  tell  of  what  inestimable  value  to  the 
human  race  >  Have  not  instances  of  undying  maternal  love  in  the 
higher  and  lower  animal  kingdom  stamped  the  pages  of  history  and 
come  into  the  experience  of  almost  every  sentient  being.?  Truly 
the  wisdom  of  Solomon  does  not  suffice  for  this  advanced  genera- 
tion of  scientists  I 


On  page  24  of  Cyon's  Atlas  is  Plate  XV,  showing  a  dog  with  sali- 
vary glands  and  the  nerves  supplying  those  glands  exposed.  A 
small  pipe  is  fixed  into  the  duct  of  the  gland.  Thg  dog  is  muzzled, 
showing  that  the  animal  was  living  and  conscious  when  the  experi- 
ment was  performed.  M.  Cyon  says,  "  If  the  experiment  is  made 
for  demonstration,  one  can  drug  the  animal  beforehand  with  chloral, 
chloroform,  or  curare,  and  if  the  last  named  poison  is  applied,  arti- 
ficial respiration  must  be  used.  If  on  the  other  hand,  one  wishes  to 
use  the  experiment  for  purposes  of  observation,  particularly  if  the 
investigation  concerns  the  influence  of  the  circularion  on  the  activity 
of  the  glands,  it  is  better  to  avoid  those  drugs,  on  account  of  their 
influence  on  the  circulation.  One  should  choose  for  the  experiment 
strong,  lively  animals,  which  have  been  well  fed  for  a  few  days 
previously."  Curare,  the  reader  will  remember,  is  a  poison  which 
deadens  all  power  of  motion  while  the  nerves  are  even  more  acutely 
sensible  to  pain  than  in  the  natural  state,  and  chloral  is  in  no  sense 
an  anaesthetic. 

(19) 


M.  Paul  Bert  is  proud  that  he  can  hold  a  dog  by  one  paw  ;  a  stif- 
fening produced  by  placing  the  victim  for  hours  under  compressed 
oxygen.  The  symptoms  resemble  at  once  a  crisis  of  strychnine 
poisoning  and  an  attack  of  tetanus,  while  sensibility  is  preserved. 
M.  Bert  says  that  "  in  lighter  cases  one  may  lift  the  animal  by  one 
paw  like  a  piece  of  wood." 

At  Alfort,  in  France,  is  a  veterinary  college  having  the  name 
"  Horses'  Hell,"  because  of  the  excruciating  experiments  lasting 
many  days,  performed  upon  horses  so  tightly  fixed  in  frames  that 
"  no  anaesthetic  is  necessary,"  in  the  words  of  an  attendant. 

"  To  ascertain  the  excitability  of  the  spinal  marrow  and  the  con- 
vulsions and  pain  produced  by  excitability,  studies  were  made  chiefly 
upon  horses  and  asses,"  says  M.  Chaveau,  "who,"  he  says  further, 
"  lend  themselves  marvelously  thereto  by  the  large  volume  of  the 

spinal  marrow The  animal  is  fixed  upon  a  table.     An  incision 

is  made  on  its  back  from  thirty  to  thirty-five  centimeters ;  the  verte- 
brae are  opened  with  the  help  of  a  chisel,  mallet,  and  pincers,  and 
the  spinal  marrow  is  exposed." 

Canon  Wilberforce  says  that  a  "  practical  physiologist  "  recently 
desired  to  ascertain  whether  it  was  possible  to  pour  molten  lead  into 
a  man's  ear  when  drunk  without  causing  him  to  shriek.  For  this 
purpose  he  procured  several  dogs,  and  the  report  says,  "  he  admin- 
istered an  anaesthetic  composed  of  a  solution  of  chloral  and  mor- 
phine to  reduce  the  dog  to  the  supposed  condition  of  a  drunken 
man.  In  spite  of  this  precaution,  it  appears  that  when  the  molten 
metal  penetrated  the  ear  of  one  of  the  animals,  accompanied  by  a 
frizzling  sound,  the  wretched  beast  struggled  violently,  and  his  howls 

(20) 


were  so  dreadful  that  even  the  gar^ons  du  laboratoire^  accustomed  as 
they  are  to  painful  spectacles,  were  strongly  affected."  The  second 
dog,  though  similarly  anaestheticized,  was  so  horribly  tortured  that  it 
actually  burst  the  thongs  that  bound  it  to  the  torture-trough." 

The  rabbit  is  a  favorite  victim  of  vivisectionists.     This  timid  little 
animal  appears  frequently  in  M.  de  Cyon's  "  Methodik  der  physio 
logischen    Experimente    und  Vivisectionen,"  with    numerous   other 
illustrations  too  blood-curdling,  perhaps  for  general  circulation. 

Stoves  for  baking  and  boiling  animals  alive  are  among  the  valued 
assets  of  vivisectionsts.  For  what  result  ?  Can  any  one  from  the 
profession  tell  ? 

Inoculation  experiments  come  under  the  head  of  vivisection.  Dr. 
Paul  Gibier,  a  pupil  of  Pasteur,  has  shown  how  murder  may  be  com- 
mitted in  a  scientific  way  by  a  mere  pin-prick  transferring  a  culture 
from  any  one  among  a  large  number  of  deadly  diseases.  With  their 
usual  habit  of  self-contradiction  and  prevarication  the  vivisectionist- 
enthusiasts  claim  that  there  is  no  suffering  in  this  same  experiment 
of  murder  as  applied  to  dumb  animals. 

Let  us  see : 

A  dog  is  inoculated  with  the  blood  of  a  diseased  mule  and  dies 
after  three  weeks  of  suffering. 

Another  dog  lives  a  month  after  inoculation. 

Another  becomes  a  living  skelton. 

Monkeys  similarly  inoculated  show  the  same  results.  In  all, 
twenty  different  animals  are  inoculated  by  one  experimenter  in 
order  to  find  out  whether  one  or  two  species  of  parasites  infected 
the  mule,  and  the  operator  states  that,  "  In  face  of  all  the  evidence 
which  has  been  accumulated  ....  one  is  not  justified  in  putting 
forward  any  theory." 

(21) 


Dr.  Leffingwell  said  that  after  a  visit  to  the  Pasteur  Institute, 
where  over  2,000  rabbits  were  awaiting  their  fate,  and  a  large 
number  of  dogs  tearing  at  their  chains  filled  a  vast  cage,  what  most 
impressed  his  memory,  were  the  scores  of  rabbits  lying  in  their  com- 
partments slowly  dying,  the  result  of  inoculations  which  are  claimed 
to  involve  less  suffering  than  the  administration  of  an  anaesthetic. 

A  London  scientist,  Klein,  freely  stated  that  he  had  "  no  regard 
at  all  for  the  animals  he  vivisected,"  as  is  proven  by  his  experiments 
in  inoculating  the  eyes  of  cats  with  the  virus  of  diphtheria,  recording 
that  in  one  case  the  experiment  lasted  until  the  eye  became  per- 
forated. 

Legislation  has  been  refused  in  America  to  restrict  and  prevent 
such  cruelty.  Why  ?  Probably  because  Congressmen  are  beset  by 
well-sounding  statements  and  appeals  from  vivisectors  asserting 
painless  methods  and  humane  killing  of  their  victims.  The  ex- 
posure of  prevarication  and  deception  comes  from  the  medical 
profession,  the  noblest  of  whom  denounce  the  practice  of  vivisection 
as  only  men  learned  in  its  scientific  detail  as  well  as  its  miseries  can 
denounce  it. 


"  I  recall  to  mind,"  said  Dr.  Latour,  "  a  poor  dog,  the  roots  of 
whose  vertebral  nerves  Magendie  desired  to  lay  bare,  in  order  to 
demonstrate  Bell's  theory  which  he  claimed  as  his  own.  The  dog, 
mutilated  and  bleeding,  twice  escaped  from  the  implacable  knife, 
and  threw  its  front  paws  around  Magendie's  neck,  as  if  to  soften  his 
murderer  and  ask  for  mercy."  He  adds,  "  I  confess,  I  was  unable 
to  endure  the  spectacle." 

And  do  the  public  believe  such  instances  are  rare } 
Shortly  before  his  death,  England's   great   surgeon,  Sir  Lawson 
Tait,  in  the  presence  of  a  distinguished  audience  proposed  a  resolu- 

(22) 


tion  denouncing  experimentation  on  living  animals  as  "crude  in 
conception,  unscientific  in  its  nature,  and  incapable  of  being  sus- 
tained by  any  accurate  or  beneficent  results  applicable  to  man. 
Such  experiments  never  have  succeeded  and  never  can,  and  they 
have,  as  in  the  case  of  Koch,  Pasteur,  and  Lister,  not  only  hindered 
progress,  but  they  have  covered  our  profession  wth  ridicule." 

Dr.  George  Wilson,  LL.D.,  the  leading  authority  in  Great  Britain 
upon  Preventive  Medicine,  said  in  an  address  before  the  British 
Medical  Association,  "  I  have  not  allied  myself  to  the  Anti-Vivisec- 
tionists,  but  I  accuse  my  profession  of  mislesding  the  public  as  to 
the  cruelties  and  horrors  which  are  perpetrated  on  animal  life."  He 
said  in  regard  to  the  use  of  the  so-called  toxins,  "  There  is  long- 
drawn-out  agony.  The  animals  so  innocently  operated  on  may  have 
to  live  days,  weeks,  or  months,  with  no  anaesthetic  to  assuage  their 
sufferings,  and  nothing  but  death  to  relieve." 

And  vivisectors  claim  that  no  law  shall  decide  how  much  pain 
may  be  inflicted  upon  these,  God's  creatures.  The  whim,  fancy,  or 
individual  brutality  of  the  operator  is  the  only  limit  set  to  his  work. 
The  attempt  to  obtain  criminals  for  human  vivisection  is  a  direct 
outcome  of  the  growth  of  unlimited  exprimentation  in  this  country. 
Here  we  see  the  scientist  blinded  by  egoism  to  the  actual  moral 
rights  of  even  a  human  being,  and  strangely  bigoted  as  to  the  value 
of  his  investigations.  Should  he  be  the  only  man  to  judge  himself  > 
Should  he  be  free  from  the  law  that  binds  all  other  men  ? 

Prof.  John  B.  Watson's  recent  experiments  on  rats  at  Chicago 
University,  undertaken  to  discover  if  rats  have  a  sixth  sense,  is 
fresh  in  the  minds  of  all  readers  of  the  daily  papers.     Of  what  ad- 

(23) 


vantage  is  it  to  man  to  know  that  a  rat  will  slip  through  a  winding 
maze  without  eyes  or  olfactory  nerves,  and  with  feet  frozen  and 
head  covered  with  collodion  ?  The  human  race  must  be  moving 
backwards  if  it  is  necessary  at  this  stage  of  development  to  grope  by 
means  of  a  sense  of  direction. 

The  public  are  unenlightened  in  regard  to  the  meaning  of  the 
term,  vivisection,  having  been  led  to  believe  the  various  prevarica- 
tions and  quieting  denials  of  the  medical  profession. 

Just  take  the  trouble  to  look  at  a  book  written  by  Dr.  George  W. 
Crile,  dealing  with  "  Experimental  Research  into  Surgical  Shock." 
Descriptions,  too  horrible  to  repeat  in  this  article,  abound.  On  page 
31  it  is  stated,  in  describing  an  experiment,  that  "the  dog  became 
profoundly  under  the  influence  of  the  anaesthetic  by  mistake,  as  that 
part  of  the  operation  was  overlooked^  Other  experiments  men- 
tioned are :  "  The  tearing  and  twisting  of  the  sciatic  nerve,"  "  Ex- 
tirpation of  an  eye  and  rude  manipulation  and  bruising  of  the 
socket,"  "  Forcing  air  and  then  water  into  the  stomach  until  it 
finally  bursts,  forcible  dilatation  of  lower  bowel  by  opening  blade  of 
large  scissors,"  "  Applying  a  large  gas  flame  to  posterior  extremities, 
and  a  Bunsen  flame  to  the  nose,"  "  Putting  the  hind  feet  in  boiling 
water,"  *'  Holding  the  nerve  trunks  with  one  forceps,  while  they 
were  grasped  peripherally  by  another  and  roughly  torn  off."  These 
are  only  a  few  of  the  horrors  described  in  this  book. 

In  the  Boston  Medical  and  Surgical  Journal  is  an  article  by  Dr. 
Crile  entitled,  "A  Research  into  the  Means  of  Controlling  the  Blood 
Pressure,"  describing  a  series  of  over  200  experiments.  The  follow- 
ing is  a  quotation  from  the  article  by  Dr.  Crile  :  "  That  the  vaso- 
motor centre  becomes  exhausted  in  complete  shock  is  indicated  by 

(24) 


the  absence  of  any  rise  in  the  blood  pressure  on  electrical  stimula- 
tion of  the  sciatic  nerve,  or  burning  the  paw,  etc."     The  means  of 
reducing  the  animals  to  this  degree  of  shock  are  too   painful   for 
repetition  in  these   pages.     On   page   249   he  says,  "  An  ordinary 
laboratory  dog  was  decapitated.    Adrenalin  and  saline  solution  were 
immediately  and  continually  administered.     It  was  found  that  the 
blood  pressure  could  be  controlled  at  will.     The  beheaded  animal 
lived  ten  and  one  half  hours."     Again,  "  The  circulation  and  respira- 
tion in  dogs,  eloctrocuted  by  a  shock  of  2,300  volts  of  an  alternating 
current,  were  re-established."     These  instances  simply  indicate  the 
nature  of  the  200  experiments  described  by  Dr.  Crile,     These  and 
others  equally  revolting  are  being  tried  daily  right  here  in  our  own 
country.     Unfortunately  it  is  here  that  the  Rockefeller  Institute  has 
been  endowed  for  purposes  of  just  such  experimentation,  where  an 
indefinite  number  of  animals  are  already  suffering  a  slow  tortuous 
death  and  others  will  perish  in  untold  agony  in  the  name  of  science. 
It  was  an  American  professor  who  performed  the  following  experi- 
ment before  a  Medical  Congress  in  Beriin.    A  dog  carefully  muzzled 
was  brought  into  the  room,  having  its  legs  bound  down.     The  pro- 
fessor pumped  the  animal   full   of   sulphuretted   hydrogen   gas   to 
which  he  set  fire  as  it  issued  from  the  mouth  in  a  stream.     He  then 
fired  a  bullet  into  the  creature's  abdomen  and  repeated  the  gas  in- 
jecrion.     The  completion  of  the  experiment  was  admitted  to  be  too 
horrible  to  be  given  even  in  a  medical  journal. 


In  LippincoWs  Magazine  is  an  article  by  Dr.  Albert  Leflingwell,  in 
which  he  says,  "  There  is  a  certain  experiment,  one  of  the  most  ex- 
cruciating that  can  be  performed,  which  consists  in  exposing  the 
spinal  cord  of  the  dog  for  the  purpose  of  demonstrating  the  function 

(25) 


1^ 


'1. 


of  the  spinal  nerves This  experiment,  which  we  are  told  sur- 

passes  even  the  callousness  of  Germany  to  repeat ;  which  every  lead- 
ing champion  of  vivisection  in  Great  Britain  reprobates  for  medical 
teaching;  which  some  of  them  shrink  even  from  seeing  themselves, 
from  horror  at  the  torture  necessarily  inflicted ;  which  the  most  ruth- 
less among  them  dare  not  exhibit  to  the  young  men  of  England,  — 
this  experiment  has  been  performed  publicly  again  and  again  in 
American  medical  colleges  !  " 

Canon  Wilberforce  said,  in  reply  to  a  criticism  of  his  own  candid 
statements  on  this  subject,  "  The  brutalizing  effect  of  practices  of 
this  kind  upon  the  youth  of  our  time  is  incalculable."  Is  it  strange 
that  horrible  murders  and  atrocious  cruelties  fill  the  columns  of  our 
daily  papers  when  the  very  flower  of  knighthood,  as  represented  by 
those  who  claim  to  be  seeking  to  serve  their  fellowmen,  spends  its 
choicest  years  in  scenes  of  such  heartrending  suffering  inflicted  by 
themselves  in  cold  blood  and  to  no  purpose  ? 

Recently  vivisectionists  have  been  fighring  a  bill  before  the  New 
York  State  Legislature  providing  for  the  reasonable  restriction  of 
experiments  in  vivisecrion,  but  not  one  of  them  ventured  to  cite  a 
single  experiment  which  is  now  believed  to  have  resulted  in  any  dis- 
covery of  value  to  humanity. 

This  bill,  entitled,  "  An  act  to  prevent  cruelty  by  regulating  ex- 
periments on  living  animals,"  provides  that  such  experiments  shall 
be  attempted  only  under  the  authority  of  the  faculty  of  a  college  or 
university  incorporated  under  New  York  State  laws,  or  under  the 
authority  of  the  State  Commissioner  of  Health  or  a  City  Board  of 
Health.  The  place  where  the  experiment  is  conducted  must  be 
registered  with  the  State  Health  Commissioners,  who  shall  license 

(26) 


the  holder  to  pursue  animal  experimentation.  Before  and  during 
the  experiment  the  animal  must  be  completely  under  an  anesthetic. 
"  If  pain  is  likely  when  the  effect  of  the  anaesthetic  has  ceased,  the 
animal  must  be  killed  immediately."  The  further  provisions  of  this 
bill  simply  confine  the  practice  to  scientific  hands,  and  prevent  need- 
less suffering,  and  yet  the  devotees  of  vivisecrion  are  unwilling  to  be 
hampered  by  restrictions  which  do  not  in  the  slightest  degree  pre- 
vent their  self-defined  aims,  but  do  prohibit  useless  and  outrageous 
experimentation. 

We  have  seen  that  the  most  learned  members  of  the  medical 
profession  declare  that  what  were  their  boasted  successes  ten  years 
ago  mean  nothing  to  the  working  knowledge  in  medicine  to-day. 

We  have  seen  also  that  inoculation  experiments  breed  disease  for 
the  human  race. 

We  have  discovered  that  the  boasted  extension  of  knowledge  of 
the  functions  of  the  human  body  by  vivisecrion  is  altogether  without 
foundation,  and  that  death  to  human  beings  has  frequently  resulted 
from  deductions  made  by  study  of  the  lower  animals,  and  that  vivi- 
section is  now,  by  a  rapidly  increasing  number  of  the  medical  pro- 
fession, called  "  the  disgrace  of  science." 

We  have  frequent  and  abundant  tesrimony  of  the  most  enlightened 
thinkers  that  the  checking  of  contagion  and  preventing  of  epidemics 
is  insured  by  a  study  of  principles  of  cleanliness  and  the  common 
laws  of  hygiene,  and  in  no  other  way. 

It  has  been  shown  in  a  limited  number  of  cases,  which  might  be 
mulriplied  indefinitely,  that  vivisection  is  almost  invariably  cruel  in 
the  extreme. 

In  reply  to  the  assertion  of  vivisectionists  that  there  is  no  moral 
wrong  in  vivisection  "to  animals,  operators,  or  spectators,"  we  would 

(27) 


ilf 


ask  their  definition  of  moral  responsibility  in  this  universe  of  which 
we  are  a  part.     The  animal  creation  wars  upon  itself,  tearing  each 
other  limb  from  limb  with  savage  cruelty  and  suffering  which  even 
the  most  hardened  of  the  human  race  shrink  from  witnessing.     For 
two   thousand   years  we  have  been  learning  to  consider  ourselves 
superior  to  those  other  fellow  beings  because  ruled  by  an  insrinctive 
spiritual  law  of  love  which  separates  us  from  creatures  less  bene'li- 
cently  endowed.     Does  this  law  of  love  permit  that  thousands  of 
our  so-called  scientists  and  investigators  shall  day  by  day  commit 
atrocities  more  outrageous  than  those  of   the  animal  creation,  be- 
cause the  cruelries  in  the  animal  worid  are  incited  by  unreasoning 
hunger  and  the  instinct  of  a  self-preservation,  while  these  refined 
latter-day  tortures  are  perpetrated  with  cool  calculation  by  contriv- 
ances more  viciously  cruel  than  the  torments  of  the  Inquisition  ? 

Is  it  a  wise  adjustment  of  civil  authority  that  a  large  number  of 
students  should  be  trained  to  consider  themselves  exempt  from  the 
arm  of  the  law .'  When  a  throng  of  unrestrained  young  fellows, 
standing  for  the  best  culture  of  our  land  of  liberty,  express  their  dis- 
pleasure by  a  bombardment  of  missiles  however  harmless,  the  innate 
principle  of  lawlessness  is  just  as  surely  present  as  when  a  vicious, 
raging  mob  of  the  worse  inherited  passions  of  human  nature  voice 
their  fury  by  huriing  dynamite  at  the  representative  of  a  governing 
power  which  irritates  them.  Can  we  afford  to  allow  the  moral  sense 
of  our  youth  to  be  gradually  crushed  out  by  sanctioning  a  pitiless 
and  demoralizing  practice  ?  It  would  be  better  indeed  to  die  of 
lock-jaw,  diphtheria,  tuberculosis,  cancer,  scrofula,  or  all  combinec: 
than  to  be  responsible  for  such  offence.  For  it  is  said  in  Holy  Writ 
of  such  an  one,  "  Woe  unto  him  by  whom  the  offence  cometh.     Ir 

(28) 


M 


.-^ 


were  better  for  him  that  a  millstone  were  hanged  about  his  neck 
and  that  he  were  drowned  in  the  depth  of  the  sea." 

The  writer  of  this  paper  has  received  an  impression  of  pain  and 
suffering,  of  nameless  torture  and  agony  in  the  kingdom  that  we  are 
appointed  to  rule  over,  which  will  not  fade.  Is  this  feeling  what  the 
vivisectionist  calls  "  sentimentalism,"  or  "  bigotry  ?  "     I  think  not. 

When  a  subject  has  become  so  excruciatingly  distressful  that  one 
may  not  even  consider  it  without  personal  suffering,  is  it  not  time  to 
face  the  problem  and  strive  vigorously  to  eliminate  this  disgraceful 
blot  upon  our  triumphant  progress  in  civilized  science  ? 

Springfield^  Vt.,  igo8. 


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